Sunday, November 14, 2010

Rum Raisin Porter: Best Ale in the Universe 4

Here is the next beer in the Best Ale in the Universe series. I wanted to use raisin and made a beer that people who are not really beer drinkers would still like. I though about a dubble style beer, but decided on something a little more fun and adventurous. I thought a Brown Porter would be a good base and then I would throw in some raisins and rum. I kept the base recipe and then created a puree of caramelized raisins (caramelized in second runnings wort, and a little bit of Old Mill Rum.

I will then add rum soaked raisins into secondary along with some of the rum.

Fermentables

Ingredient

Amount

%

MCU

When

UK Pale Ale Malt

4.50 lb

45.0 %

2.6

In Mash/Steeped

German Munich Malt

4.00 lb

40.0 %

4.2

In Mash/Steeped

UK Brown Malt

1.00 lb

10.0 %

10.7

In Mash/Steeped

US Chocolate Malt

0.25 lb

2.5 %

16.6

In Mash/Steeped

German Carafa I

0.25 lb

2.5 %

15.9

In Mash/Steeped

Hops

Variety

Alpha

Amount

IBU

Form

When

UK Fuggle

4.5 %

1.00 oz

15.4

Bagged Pellet Hops

60 Min From End

UK Fuggle

4.5 %

0.50 oz

5.9

Bagged Pellet Hops

30 Min From End

UK Fuggle

4.5 %

0.50 oz

2.8

Bagged Pellet Hops

10 Min From End

Other Ingredients

Ingredient

Amount

When

Raisins

15.00 oz

In Boil

Whirlfloc Tablet

0.10 oz

In Boil

Yeast

DCL S-04-SafAle

Mashed in at 152F, Batch sparged, 75 minute boil.

The wort smelled and tasted awesome and I can't wait to see how this beer turns out.

I was trying to get this batch of beer made quickly so I could watch some football and make some ribs. So no pictures this time.

I have the week of Thanksgiving off and I plan on brewing my second 100% brett beer. I will use brett c. and Nelson hops. I hope to bre wanother beer as well, not sure what yet, maybe my a rebrew of my RIS. I will also be doing some tasting reviews, bottling up some beers for the Bruery's 300th batch comp. http://www.thebruery.com/batch300/index.html. I also inherited a new chest freezer, which will become my new fermentation chest!

5 comments:

sounds nice. Don't be surprised if you have head-retention issude though. I recently did an Oat Stout with a raisin puree added at 15 minutes before the end of the boil and the heads dissipated rather quickly. I had been warned about it before I made it so I wasn't worried when it turned out to be true. Just letting you know. By the way, when you do that Brett C and Neslon Sauvin brew you'll be in heaven. Just give it some time. I did one of those too (Munich base with a touch of Amarillo too) and after 5 months it was truly amazing!

I did a brett c and amarillo beer a year and a half ago, and it took about five months to come around. At 3 months my wife and brewing buddy said it tasted like vomit, I knew it would be great, but it just needed time. I hope to brew the new batch sometime soon. I want it ready for comp season.

Thanks for the heads up on the head retention, it will probably be served in red cups so it shouldn't be a major problem. What kind of gravity did you get from the raisins?

This does sound like a great idea. Also what type of raisins did you use? I looked up raisin nutrition facts. They way I read it for 165 g serving it has 98 g of sugar so 60% sugar.And thanks for the heads up of The Bruery comp.

I used Boghosian Raisins (http://www.boghosianraisin.com/. They are typical dark raisins. As the beer was fermenting all I got was raisins, now after a week the beer has a nice raisin smell followed by a nice chocolate/roast malt aroma. I am gonna give this beer a few more days and then check the gravity. Then I will rack it onto the rum soaked raisins, and finally add the soaking rum.

Had the party on Friday night where I served the Orange Pale and the Raisin Porter. Both were big hits, with Porter kicking first. The Orange Pale had lost some of its bright citrus and hop flavor/aroma, so I wasn't that stoked on it, but everyone liked it. It was also a little over carbonated so that may have also been why it din't kick as fast. I am running out of food items, so hopefully I can come up with a good idea for the end of the year party, worst case scenario I will just rebrew the peach wheat.